A Quick Fix

Eww, I've a horrible case of mummy guilt at the minute.

Those of you who put up with me regularly will know that I've been prattling on about redecorating Chloe's room since Christmas!  It still hasn't happened and she's making me feel downright awful about it.

She gets a look on her face like the Little Match Girl every time we have to put it off for yet another week.  I could give a list of reasons why we haven't got around to it yet, like money but in truth we have all the paiint and bits and bobs already bought then only thing we need to buy is new carpet.  It's not exactly the biggest room and I'm not minded to buy the very best Axeminster for a five year old's room so it won't cost much.

I could say we've been busy but in truth we just haven't tried as hard as we could have to find the time to get started.

I could say that I'd rather do it on a weekend when she can stay in my mum's house overnight because I don't want her sleeping in a room which smells of fresh paint, but the problem with that excuse is that we've had a few weekends like that this year and she could just as easily sleep iin our room for a night or two instead of her own room and it's the Summer holidays and if I were to throw up a two man tent in the living room and give her a sleeping bag she'd be over the moon.

I've got no excuse other than a shortage of time rather than a complete lack of it and an abundance of laziness on my part.

To ease my guilt I opted for a quick fix ...

I bought two huge sheets of decals to brighten her room up a little.

You'll have to excuse the awful photos, it's been a bit grey and miserable here but trust me, her room is really bright and cheerful.

I managed to get them all on the walls while she was at my mum's house because decals are really just glorified stickers and the only thing kids love more than putting stickers on it pick pick picking them back off again.

And all for the grand total of £4 and 20 minutes of my time.

We will get to decorating her room as soon as we can but in the meantime she's happy and I no longer have to wince each time she gives me "the look".

*I don't really know what's going on with blogger at the minute, but it just refuses to centre images*

And speaking of cushions.....

I've finally finished the first batch of new cushions for me:) They're mine, all mine.



It feels like an eternity since I've made something for myself so I'm a teensy weensy wee bit precious about these cushions.

Husbands who arrive home from work, kick off their nasty work boots and fling themselves onto the sofa feet and all, not to mention 4 year olds who will still occasionally wipe a stray booger on anything unlucky enough to be within arms length are in very real danger of winding up on the endangered species list, if you get me.

I've been meaning to make these for, ooh a couple of months now, isn't it amazing how easily time gets away from you, and yet what it all boiled down to was an hour or so on Thursday evening pressing and cutting the fabric and a very thoroughly interrupted 90 minutes this morning and I have six completed new cushions, plus two more covers ready to be filled.

I already looked like a mad bag lady carrying six of the inserts home on Wednesday, adding the last two would have been just pure insanity. Plus I can always collect them on Monday.

In the end I went for simple envelope cushion covers because in this house zips tend to get broken and I figure they'll last a heck of a lot longer this way.

In case it isn't immediately obvious from the photo the cushions are a pale buttermilk yellow and a soft pistachio green which are conveniently enough the very same colours I've chosen to repaint the living room eventually.

So I'm moving ever closer to my cosy welcoming home and so far I'm managing to stick to my very tight budget because I saved a bundle on the fabric.

Because my local fabric shop also carries out a curtain making service when a new print arrives in one of the seamstresses whips up a curtain so that it can be hung to display the fabric properly, but because of the limited space they only do this with the most expensive fabrics, then once they either decide they won't be reordering any more of that print or it becomes an end of line print, the curtains are taken down and popped in behind the counter out of sight.

However if you know they're there you can buy them for £3 each! Each curtain is roughly two yards of fabric and both of those prints originally sold for £22.99 per yard. Picture me with the big grin on my face. Add to that the fact I found 300 thread count heavy weight cotton sheets on sale in Makro for £6 and my new covers ended up costing me a little more than £1 each and I still have a little more than half the fabric left.

I did spend a bit more on the inserts though, but I opted for the ones that love the washing machine and tumble dryer. I have the same pillows on my bed and they've lasted years so I really can't fault them. I'd much rather spend the extra now, than end up replacing crappy inserts every few months.

I'm also working on a little something for Chloe's room at the minute which is turning out to be just about one of the cutest things I've ever set eyes on. I'm taking my time though, because I will be posting a tute once it's complete.

Oh Christmas Tree

When my brother and I were little my mum had one simple rule about her Christmas tree, "If my kids made it, it goes on the tree!".

Simple as that. Now with two kids in a very large primary school which managed to get through a mountain of toilet paper every year that made for a lot of TP decorations on the tree, but she didn't care because we made them.

I have exactly the same rule, though because Chloe's only four years old we're still building a up to a decent amount of her little handmade decorations. Until the day when she can single handedly fill our huge tree to the point it's at risk of falling over I'll fill in the gaps with things that make her smile.


And yes that box of Christmas decorations does include a green paper fairy, hand print angels, golden paper stars and a slightly mad eclectic mix of giant glass m&ms, fruit fairies, Mickey Mouse stringing his own set of lights a big blue penguin with a light pushed inside, a set of really, really gaudy glass ornaments featuring a lion and a monkey nut of all things, cushions (it's a big tree) and even a rubber ducky.

I have coloured lights because Chloe likes them and Christmas belongs to her inside these fours walls, so she gets her way.

And as if that isn't enough, there's even some tinsel chucked in for good measure.



There is no question that a child lives in this house:)

Merry Christmas everybody and a very Happy and hopefully relaxing New Year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

40 days left. I can't believe it and I'm starting to get that real child like excited feeling.

I really enjoyed reading all of your lovely comments on the giveaway post and I have to agree with each and every one of them. There are just so many things I love about Christmas, mostly that I get to spend a handful of completely uninterrupted days with family. No work, no phone calls, no emergency emails. It's pure bliss.

If I had to say one thing I didn't like about Christmas it would be the shops. They seem to start into Christmas just a wee bit earlier each year and the adverts on television really seem to be aimed at every one's panicky side, don't they. I love Christmas but for me, Christmas shopping is something I do when I'm wrapped up warm in all my layers and scarves with a cold nose and the steam rising off my breath. For years past when I would be working in the run up to Christmas, its also something that I now think I should be doing in the dark in Belfast, able to see all the Christmas lights fully lit.

Anyway, you're not interested in all this. I'm supposed to be drawing the winner of the giveaway.

I always use Random.org (I like a bit of randomness too) and from 33 comments, Random picked........ number 27.




Congratulations to Oddsox, the winner of my Christmas Giveaway*. As soon as I get Oddsox full postal address I'll begin stalking her parceling up her winnings and get them sent off as soon as possible.


*The title "Christmas Giveaway" does not mean that there will not be a further giveaway before Christmas, though I may have to call it "Christmas Giveaway, The Prequel", prequels are all in at the minute, aren't they?

I mentioned a giveaway, didn't I?

Its almost that time of year again, there just isn't any avoiding it.

I've spent the last couple of weeks rearranging furniture and generally clearing all the junk out of my that accumulates during the year to make space in my living room for my Christmas tree. I don't live in a huge house and permanently vacant corner for a tree so it has to be created every year.

Its a good weekend's worth of work just to put up and decorate our tree and that's before I even think about doing anything with the rest of the house so I like to get the organising and rearranging out of the way nice and early so that I can enjoy decorating my tree because, you know trying to shift a bookcase and throwing your back out when your plan was to have a wee glass of wine and hang a few stockings can really put a crimp on a girl's Christmas spirit. Yes that actually happened to my mum and whereas my solution to the problem was to start earlier hers was to buy a 1 foot fibre optic tree that sits nicely on top of the bookcase.

So I'm feeling all Christmassy and I want to share my Christmas spirit (not the mulled wine variety) and what better way than with a giveaway.

And its a pretty good one!


Everything is handmade by yours truly. If you win you'll receive a set of two of my prim style Christmas trees, a set of three gingerbread men tree decorations, a set of three mini I-cord wreath tree decorations (complete with hand knit berries) and a hanging star gift bag, big enough to hold a piece of jewellery or a handful of chocolate coins (I'd recommend filling with chocolate coins). As if that wasn't enough, there will also be something edible included in the giveaway, maybe not a reindeer that poops jelly beans as cool as that is, but something yummy just the same.

The giveaway will be open until midnight on Saturday 14 November, I'll then draw a name on Sunday and pop in the post on Monday so you have it in plenty of time to decorate your home and tree.

Easy peasy, and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. Tell me something you like, love or loath (we'll work on your issues at a later date) about Christmas!

You can get extra entries into the giveaway by doing any or all of the following;

1. Subscribe to this blog here;
   
   
2. Become a fan on Facebook;
   
   
3. Tweet about the giveaway and include @SeetheWoods in your tweet;
   
   
4. Blog about the giveaway and link back to this post (not the main blog url)

That's a total of five chances to win this giveaway, just remember though that you need to leave a separate comment for each entry, the more times you enter the more chances you have of winning.

And because we don't have the sole rights to Christmas in the UK (actually I think Disney might own those) this giveaway is open worldwide. You've no excuses now, get entering!